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Saturday, October 26, 2013

MOZILLA'S NEW LIGHTBEAM DOWNLOAD ALLOWS USERS TO TRACK TRACKERS

Published time: October 25, 2013

Reuters / Albert Gea

Mozilla, the open-source software community
responsible for the Firefox browser, has released a new download that
allows users to identify who’s tracking their Internet movements.
Dubbed “Lightbeam,” the free Firefox extension will enable users
to see which third party companies are monitoring their online
presence, a move that Mozilla states will “illuminate the inner
workings of the web.”
“It’s a stake in the ground in terms of letting people know
the ways they are being tracked,” said Mark Surman, Mozilla’s
executive director, to the UK-based Independent. “At Mozilla,
we believe everyone should be in control of their user data and
privacy and we want people to make informed decisions about their
Web experience.”
With the download in place, Lightbeam creates a visual
representation of all the third parties that are active on the
websites you visit. Typically, that would include advertisers or
other companies looking to sell your data for marketing purposes.
Mozilla is also encouraging Lightbeam users to crowd-source their
data in order to generate “a big-picture view of how tracking
works on the Internet,” potentially singling out which companies
are the most active in their monitoring.
"The visualization grows with every site you visit and every
request made from your browser,” Mozilla said in its online
description of Lightbeam. “In addition to the graph view, you
can also see your data in a clock view to examine connections
over a 24-hour period or in a List view to drill down into
individual sites."
Considering the software’s ability to access such detailed
information, there’s already concern that the program may
jeopardize the privacy of users willing to share and upload the
data it tracks. Mozilla, however, says there’s no need to worry:
Lightbeam does not record IP addresses, and everything users
decide to share will be done anonymously. It can also be easily
uninstalled.
Mozilla has already upgraded its Firefox browser after learning
the NSA was exploiting deficiencies in the browser to uncover
people using the anonymity-protecting Tor software and gain
access to their data.
“Our focus in on building a web based on openness and
transparency,” Surman added.“Our dream is a world where
people know more about how the web works and take control of
their lives online. We need a posse of people to get involved and
make that happen.”

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